Charles Krug Winery, November 24, 2014

Tasting Room - 7 / Wines - 6
Range:  1 to 9 (9 is best, 5 is average)
European-styled winery just north of Saint Helena.  Variety of reds and whites.
www.charleskrug.com
 
I was told about Charles Krug Winery during a visit back in 2008 to Rudd Oakville Estate.  The fellow hosting my small-group tasting had suggested Charles Krug as a good place to visit.  Later, I would notice Charles Krug’s property as I would drive north past Saint Helena, but I did not pass it on every trip.  So, when it came time to visit on this trip, I had trouble remembering where it was located.  Because I have switched to using the Silverado Trail and Deer Park Road to bypass the Saint Helena traffic, I have not been passing the Charles Krug estate.  As I would seldom travel north of Freemark Abbey’s tasting room, my sometimes unreliable memory had me believe that the tasting room was north of Freemark Abbey, when in truth the winery is located just south of Deer Park Road, across from the Culinary Institute.  (Ah, that’s it!  I was distracted by the thought of food every time I drove by.)

The old-world style of the Charles Krug winery building

The Charles Krug winery operations building houses the tasting room and is set back from the main road a short distance.  You’ll walk a bit further from the parking lot, past the gardening structures and around the side of the building to find the entrance.  The winery operations building has an old-world European feel to it, with tall walls, small, arched, brick-lined openings for windows, cornerstones running up each corner, and a gabled roof with dormer windows popping out.  Inside, the tasting area is set up in a large open space.  Unlike the tasting room at Ehler’s Estate, where the floor is divided (buy sofas and tables alone) into nine tasting areas, there are just two tasting bars at Charles Krug.  The vast middle of the room is mostly vacant except for a small cluster of tables near one of the bars.  Behind the main tasting bar they have installed a tall bottle rack much like the handsome backlit rack at Etude, although the rack here is stocked with dummy bottles all bearing the same label (a reference to 1861).  The floors and walls are all unfinished concrete, with some woodwork added to soften the feel.  The overall feel of the operations building is blended nicely with a few visual comforts to create an interesting (albeit dim) tasting room.

The mix of concrete, wood, and interesting items inside the Charles Krug tasting room

 
I opted for the basic tasting flight, but dropped one of the white wines in favor of another red wine.  I started with the 2012 Carneros Chardonnay and followed with the 2012 Carneros Pinot Noir.  Next was the 2012 Napa Valley Cabernet.  I ended my flight with the 2012 Zinfandel, which was added to my flight.  Of these wines, I enjoyed the Zinfandel the most, but I would prefer not to be drinking 16.7% alcohol in my wine.  (The highest Zinfandel I have ever tasted was 17% and was delicious.)

The wine rack wall inside Charles Krug winery

Based on this experience, I would rate the winery as a 7 and the wines offered as a 6.
 

March 1, 2015 – My most important wine tools

There are a number of accessories one can accumulate that facilitate the regular enjoyment of good wines.  The number one item to have is a good, hand-operated cork screw.  Along these lines, I would recommend the basic, two-stage cork pull with either a hinge midway down the prop for the bottle lip, or a two piece solution where one slides out of the way for the other.  The fancy “rabbit” cork pull is fun to entertain with and works remarkably well on new corks, but it comes up short (quite literally) when pulling out old corks, often snapping the old cork in two (or more) pieces and leaving the bottle hopelessly plugged.  The number two item that I recommend is a decanter (and a little patience) to let the air soften the wine before serving.

From left: hinged cork screw, Ah So cork pull, and wine screen

When it comes to serving older wines, I have a different set of tools.  To ensure the complete, secure removal of the cork, I prefer the Ah So cork puller, with its two parallel slats that you wedge between the cork and the side of the bottle.  Once fully inserted, you twist the cork, loosening it, before attempting to list it out of the bottle.  Often an older cork will lock in place as crystals and sediment form against its interior surface.  Twisting the cork breaks this lock.  The next most important tool is a fine screen for filtering the wine.  Sediment accumulates in older wines and is unsightly and unpleasant on the palette.  These fine screens are ideally suited to capture nearly all of the sediment in any bottle and rinse clean easily.  Often, in restaurants, the last ounce or two of wine is not poured from an older wine to avoid transferring sediment into the glass, and the screen is a way to enjoy every last drop of your wine.